Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: How much further to go in Man-Machine?

Author: Steve

Date: 17:47:41 07/15/00

Go up one level in this thread


On July 15, 2000 at 20:27:42, Pete R. wrote:

>On July 15, 2000 at 18:56:41, pete wrote:
>
>>To add another opinion :-)
>>
>>Current results IMO prove that under certain circumstances "computer entities"
>>like the Junior one in Dortmund can reach GM-like results.
>
>I don't see any need to tiptoe are the "are they GM strength?" question, it
>seems pretty clear to me.  If you define GM strength as entering tournaments and
>achieving a GM norm, then I think computers can do this, in fact we just saw it
>done twice.  If you mean "can they assess a position as well as a human GM" then
>the answer is generally no, because they are not good in certain types of
>position due to lack of positional understanding.  We can speculate that
>opponents might generally adopt such anti-comp strategies and so a machine
>wouldn't be able to achieve a GM norm against such a field, but this is neither
>here nor there.  Some players play anti-comp, some don't, and some refuse to
>play at all.
>
>The important thing is how well they play generally.  No offense to the DJ team
>in any way, but this tournament has given me zero incentive to buy Junior in
>addition to my other software, because I see that it plays similarly aimless
>moves.  I already have this in Fritz and Hiarcs. ;) If it played good positional
>chess and never made a stupid or aimless move, even without winning a single
>game, I would pull out my credit card in an instant.  How it plays is vastly
>more important than whether it wins.

I feel the same way, but what you're asking computers to do is operate with
human-like intelligence, and the direction that computer chess has taken
indicates that the people who really understand this stuff (programmers) don't
feel this goal is attainable.  Frankly, I'm happy for the GMs (not to mention
IMs and NMs), because those who are willing to teach ordinary players about
chess -- through lessons, books, game annotations, etc. -- should be able to
make a decent living from the game.  Computers may beat them in tournaments (or
not), but they can't match their teaching skills.



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.